"Crazy Prices" and Empty Seats: European Athletics Championships Faces Backlash in Birmingham
A 23,000-capacity stadium looking barely half full. A barbecue pork roll at £18.50. A bottle of water at £3.95. The 2026 European Athletics Championships, the first ever held in Britain, opened at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium to a chorus of complaint about what it costs to walk through the gate.
The backlash has been led by figures inside the sport itself. Jenny Meadows, coach of Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, took to X to relay fans' frustrations over high ticket prices, parking problems, and the simple fact that many people did not even know the championships were happening. BBC commentator Steve Cram, a former world 1500m champion, called the spectator figures disappointing, particularly down the back straight. Athletics commentator Sonja McLaughlan said she was shocked at the prices and called it a shame for the athletes competing on the track.
The numbers tell their own story. At the start of the Championships, Category A tickets in the main stand cost £110, Category B £90, Category C £60, and Category D £40. For the final three days, the top price rose to £150. Beyond the turnstiles, the costs kept stacking: £22.50 for the park-and-ride scheme, £17.50 for a park-and-walk option that still required a 45-minute walk to the stadium. Once inside, a bratwurst hot dog set fans back £15. The last event finishes after 9.50pm, and families face a mile-long walk to the nearest train station.
Yet the stadium was not entirely empty. More than 13,000 fans attended Monday night's session to watch Amy Hunt sprint to 100m gold, one of the championships' standout moments so far. After her victory, Hunt's agent Nick Harwell posted two words on social media: "Crazy prices."
Birmingham 2026 organisers have pushed back. A spokesperson said 50% of tickets were priced at £30 or lower, with adult tickets starting from £10 and junior tickets from £5. They pointed to a "Mondo" children's ticket at £6.31 for Friday morning — named in honour of a world record — and said a family of four could attend for as little as £30. Ticket sales, they said, far surpassed targets, with Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening sessions approaching sell-out. Organisers had also reduced one ticket category from £100 to £50 ahead of the event, though discount offers are not permitted on the official resale platform.
The timing is awkward. London's bid team for the 2029 World Athletics Championships is due to make its final presentation on Friday, and images of empty seats in Birmingham are hardly the advertisement British athletics would have chosen. The CEO of UK Athletics called the event "absolutely massive" for the city, and on the track the sport is delivering: Hodgkinson, chasing a third straight European 800m title, advanced through her opening round on Monday alongside Audrey Werro and Femke Broeders-Bol to reach the semifinals.
For the athletes, the championships run 10–16 August. For the fans who did come, many left admiring the racing and wincing at the receipt. The question Birmingham 2026 now faces is whether the prices that filled the budget have hollowed out the atmosphere that makes a home championships worth hosting.
